# Diplomacy - Sign Ups



## nastypass (Apr 21, 2010)

Diplomacy is a strategic war game set in Europe just before World War I.  Players control the armed forces of one of seven Great Powers (Italy, France, Austria, Germany, England, Russia, and Turkey), decided randomly at the beginning of the game  (The map of the opening, for reference.  Italy=green, France=light blue, Austria=red, Germany=black, England=blue, Russia=gray, and Turkey=yellow).  This is the only element of chance in the game.  In order to win, they must make and break alliances with each other.  Promises will be broken, grudges will be held, and playing the deaf-mute will only get you so far until someone decides you aren't worth the supply centers you're taking up and bumps you off.

Their goal is to control 18 of the 34 supply centers (provinces marked with a dot on the map) by moving their units every turn.  If a country no longer controls any supply centers, they are eliminated from the game.  Units are marked by country-colored rectangles (for example, 

	
	
		
		
	


	




 represents a Russian army, and 

	
	
		
		
	


	




 is a Turkish fleet) and no unit is stronger than another.  There are four actions a unit can take each turn:  move, hold, support, and convoy.  

"Hold" makes the unit keep its position, so that other units cannot take it without support (also explained later).  Hold orders are written like this:  F Mid HOLD (Fleet Mid-Atlantic Ocean holds).

"Move" moves a unit to any adjacent province.  Move actions are written like this:  A Par - Bur  (Army Paris moves to Burgundy).  Only one unit can move into a province at a time, and since no unit is stronger than another, if two or more try to do so at once, it will cause a standoff, and none of the units will move.  Fleets cannot move to provinces without a coast ("inland" provinces), and armies cannot move onto the sea (however, they can cross it by use of the convoy command, to be explained later).  Note that islands without names, such as Ireland and Iceland, do not count as provinces and cannot be moved into.

"Support" is the most important and complex order in the game.  A supporting unit cannot move, but makes an adjacent unit count as two for its order.  For example, say Italy has an army in Venice and Austria has an army in Vienna and Bohemia.  If Italy and Austria both ordered one of their armies to move to Tyrolia, it would normally be a standoff and both would fail.  However, if Austria had its army in Bohemia support Vienna's movement into Tyrolia, it would count as _two_ units instead of one, and Vienna would move successfully, while Venice stayed.  Support doesn't even have to come from the same country- if the army in Bohemia had been German instead of Austrian, it still could have supported Army Vienna.  This is one of the many advantages of forming alliances.  

When a unit with support moves into an occupied province, the holding unit is 'dislodged' and must retreat to an adjacent, unoccupied province between turns.  If no such provinces are available, the unit is disbanded.  To balance this, support doesn't just work for movement, you can support a holding unit as well.

However, support can be 'cut'.  If the supporting unit (army Bohemia, in our example) is attacked, it is cut off, and cannot support.  Go back to our original example, if Germany had an army in Munich that tried to move to Bohemia, Austria's army in that province would have been forced to fight off the Germans, and couldn't support Vienna.  Support commands are written like this:  A Vie - Tyr ; A Boh S A Vie - Tyr  (Army Vienna moves to Tyrolia, Army Bohemia supports Army Vienna's move to Tyrolia).  If you're supporting a foreign unit, you must specify what country they belong to!

"Convoy" is a fleet-only order, used to move armies over seas.  A fleet at sea can convoy an army in an adjacent province to another adjacent province, or to another convoy in an adjacent sea.  For example, say England has an army in London and fleets in the North Sea and the Skagerrak.  Fleet North Sea could convoy Army London to Norway, or to Fleet Skagerrak, which would in turn convoy it to Sweden.  However, convoys are disrupted if the fleet(s) involved are dislodged.  Convoys are written like this:  A Ank - Sev ; F Bla C A Ank - Sev (Army Ankara moves to Sevastopol, Fleet Black Sea convoys Army Ankara to Sevastopol).

Diplomacy is split into a cycle of three turns- Spring, Fall, and Winter.  Spring and Fall are played normally- everyone has 48 hours to coordinate orders with their allies and PM them to the game master (me, in this game), who will then post the results.  Winter is a shorter, 24 hour turn in which countries' units do not move or attack each other, and instead adjust their number of units according to how many supply centers they controlled at the end of the previous Fall.  If England has three units but controls four supply centers, they can build a new unit in one of their starting supply centers, if they still control it.  If Russia has four units, but only three supply centers, they must remove one of their units.  After this, the cycle repeats itself in Spring of the following year.

Miscellaneous rules that I haven't covered here:
-No one can move through or occupy Switzerland
-St. Peterspurg, Bulgaria, and Spain have separate coasts, and fleets that occupy must specify which coast they are on, as they cannot jump from one coast to another.
-If two units attempt to trade places with each other (for example A Ven - Tri ; A Tri - Ven) it results in a standoff.
-Since this is online, you are free to discuss strategy/make allies/whatever whenever and however you like, I can't really stop you.

A much more in-depth explanation (with visual aids!) can be found here.

Other helpful links:
Diplomacy - a Five Minute Guide
Diplomacy Archive - an archive of Strategy and Tactics Articles
The Wikipedia article

So!  This is the sign up thread for TCoD's first game of Diplomacy.  If there's enough interest it won't be the last.  I need seven people, plus three or four substitutes in case people get lazy.  Feel free to use this thread for any questions you have about how the game works.

Current players/subs:
Ash/NWT
Kammington
Alabaster
MidnightSaboteur
Sage Noctowl
Gary Oak/Verne
Kali the Flygon


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## nyuu (Apr 21, 2010)

Game theory is the best theory. Sign me up


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## Karkat Vantas (Apr 21, 2010)

Ooh, shiny. I'll play (and fail).


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## Ether's Bane (Apr 21, 2010)

[Ness voice]Okay![/ness voice]


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## Clover (Apr 21, 2010)

I'll probably spend the whole time between now and the start going over the docs, but let's go!


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## Sage Noctowl (Apr 22, 2010)

Eh, Why not?  Let's-a-Go!


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## nastypass (Apr 23, 2010)

All in, mostly posting to get this out from under the piles of postcount++


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## octobr (Apr 24, 2010)

WELP I VOLUNTEER


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## nastypass (Apr 24, 2010)

In!  C'mon guys, just one more.


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## Kali the Flygon (Apr 26, 2010)

I'll try, I suppose.


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## nyuu (Apr 26, 2010)

Here we go?


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## nastypass (Apr 26, 2010)

In!  The main thread will be up in a bit after I decide countries.

ETA:  whoooop  Note that I _will_ still accept anyone as a sub.


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## brandman (Apr 27, 2010)

Awesome! I love war strategy games! I'll sub! For what country though?


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## nastypass (Apr 27, 2010)

brandman1996 said:


> Awesome! I love war strategy games! I'll sub! For what country though?


Whichever I end up needing subs for.  In.


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## Patar (Apr 28, 2010)

I'll sub too if needed.


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## nastypass (Apr 28, 2010)

Patar said:


> I'll sub too if needed.


In.  Other subs *please use the main thread.*


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## Greed (May 11, 2010)

Is there gonna be another one after the current one ends? because I'd like to be part of it


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## Karkat Vantas (May 12, 2010)

You always could sub for another nation if necessary.


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## Greed (May 18, 2010)

I'll sub as well if needed


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